Get used to it, buses are gone for Vista middle schoolers

VISTA -- It’s 30 minutes before school lets out and already theminivans and sport utility vehicles have descended on RooseveltMiddle School en masse.

The parking lot is jammed and parents squeeze their cars intowhat little curb space is left on Sagewood Drive. A steady streamof cars between North Santa Fe and Mesa Drive jostles for pickupposition.

Some park illegally.

A mom blocking someone’s driveway with her green van said, “Ihad no choice,” as she parked and waited for her seventh-gradedaughter to get out of school.

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The elimination of bus service for the four Vista middleschools, one parent said, is a “disaster that’s made traffic anoverwhelming nightmare.”

District officials, faced with slashing $9.5 million from thebudget last spring, saved $400,000 by cutting bus service forsixth-, seventh and eighth-graders. The payoff, they say, preventedthe loss of more teachers, programs and materials.

“We didn’t want to do it,” Superintendent Dave Cowles said. “Butwe had to make priorities and make tough choices.”

The elimination of bus service isn’t a new cost-saving tactic.The two high schools in Vista stopped busing students about 10years ago, and the Carlsbad Unified School District has no busesfor any of its students. Oceanside Unified quit busing middle andhigh school students this year.

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Vista elementary students can ride a school bus if they livemore than a mile from campus. Bus service is available forspecial-education middle school students.

For the 1,000 or so Vista middle school students forced to finda new way to and from school, the going has been a little rough thefirst week of school. Some walk or ride their bike while others aredriven by their parents, which can mean altering work schedules orcreating car pools. Some students have no choice but to take apublic bus.

“I’m very upset,” said Jane Silva, the mother of a MadisonMiddle School sixth-grader. “I’m going back to work and I don’tknow what we’re going to do.”

Bus substitutes

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Down the street from Madison, which was served by seven schoolbuses last year, eighth-grader Marlene Garcia and three of herfriends sat at Lake Boulevard and Windsor Road after school. Theywere told to wait away from the school for Marlene’s mom to pickthem up. That was one way to avoid the parking lot headache.

“My mom said it’s going to be a zoo,” Marlene said.

Madison seventh-grader Anthony Heard, who rode the school buslast year, said now his parents are changing around their workschedules to drop him off and pick him up. Anthony was waiting onthe same corner as Marlene and others whose parents want to steerclear of the congestion.

The burden caused by the school bus cuts is felt, in large part,by parents who begin work before school starts and get off a coupleof hours after school ends.

Rosalind Emerson, who was waiting for her daughter to bereleased from school for the day, said she starts at work 3 p.m.Roosevelt dismisses students at 2:08 p.m., giving Emerson barelyenough time to drive her daughter home, freshen up and make it toher job.

“The bus service we had, we paid for,” Emerson said. “It’s notlike it was free.”

Last year, a school bus pass cost $1 a day.

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District officials offer no other advice to parents other thancar pooling, walking, biking or using the public bus system.

“They have to look at their options and determine the best waythey see fit,” Dan Love, the district’s transportation supervisorsaid. “If the kids are going to walk, parents should walk with themto determine the safest route.”

The district has received fewer than 10 phone calls from parentswho say they have absolutely no way of getting their kids to andfrom school, Love said.

Car pools, safety and such

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Car pools, always a popular way to divide the commutingresponsibility, have become standard operating procedure.

Sharon Pickard, sitting inside her Chevy Tahoe in the Madisonparking lot 30 minutes before school lets out, is waiting for herson and four other children -- a full load.

“A few other families asked if I could help out because of thebusing cut,” Pickard said. “So I have to pick up every day withoutrelief.”

At Lincoln Middle School, on busy Escondido Avenue, many of the500 students who rode the bus last year are walking to schoolnow.

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“We have a lot of walkers now more than ever,” Principal PattieCampbell said.

Campbell said she worries about the students who are dropped offtoo early.

“No one is here before 6:45 a.m. and we don’t have child carehere,” she said.

The mention of allowing Lincoln students to ride motorizedscooters to school, Campbell said, “scary thought.”

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James Taylor, the parent of a Roosevelt seventh-grader who tookthe bus last year, said the cut in bus service puts students’safety at risk. Drivers aren’t looking where they’re going and kidsare dashing across the streets -- often at the same time, hesaid.

“You have to do something or a kid is going to get hit or hurt,"he said. “It’s a bottleneck from one intersection to another outthere.”

Taylor said he often directs traffic on Mesa Drive as a way ofsupervising the kids and helping drivers.

“There’s no direction, there’s no control out there,” he said."If it keeps up, there’s going to be a fatality, no question aboutit.”

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What school officials think

Many school administrators say the lack of buses has made theirparking lots and surrounding streets more crowded than in the past,but once parents work out a system and “get used to the change,"the daily routine should smooth out.

Until then, a few students are arriving late and waiting aroundafter school for their rides to show up.

“Parents are doing a good job of car pooling and that definitelyhelps,” Madison Principal Theresa Grace said. “Some are findingalternative drop-off locations.”

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Roosevelt Principal Larrie Hall said he has assigned moreteachers to supervise the parking lot before and after school toguide parents and help the traffic flow better.

At least half of Roosevelt’s 1,450 students rode the bus lastyear, Hall said.

The reality of budget cuts, Hall said, means making choices, andwhile he said he hated to see the buses go, he is glad to haveavoided further layoffs.

“It’s a hard piece because we want more teachers, obviously,” hesaid. “Teachers and smaller classes can offer better instructionfor the kids.”

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Even with the elimination of the 19 middle school bus routes,none of the district’s 23 buses is sitting idle. Rather, they’rebeing used by the elementary students, who now attend school on thesame nine-month schedule.

“The irony is elementary ridership is up and buses are runningat capacity,” Cowles said.